To M^rs Brompton Feb. 28. 1756
I have just now renew’d my Pleasure in reading over afresh
Dear M^rs Bromptons Obliging Letter receiv’d by me on Decem^r/ 19^th
1755. & do not find any thing in it that requires my answer
but a great deal that demands my acknowledgements & thanks
for it is fill’d with Good nature & Good sense from the beginning
to the end, & very expressive of y^r having entertain’d a better
opinion & a greater regard for y^r unworthy Cousin than she
can ever deserve from y^r hands, but I don’t design to be so sin-
-gular as to wish to be treated according to my Desert, & therefore
am very well pleased you should continue in y^r Error, & will
not take any pains to perswade you that I am Good for nothing.
I Dream’d last night that (Arachne like) I was metamorpho
-sed into a spider as big as the full moon, & sat upon a Throne
in the center of a web of my own spinning as Large as Lincolns-
-Inn-Fields. As soon as I awaked, I wonder’d what this ex
-traordinary Dream should pretend, & not having any magician.
Astrologer, Soothsayer, or Chaldean to resort to, explain’d it my
self, to signifie, that I must this day spin out of my own
Braine a Long Letter to Dear M^rs Brompton, w^ch wⁿ wrote &
Read will be no more work than a monstrous spider’s Web
now had I Dream’d of a silk-worm should have thought
it a far more fortunate prognostick, & not have doubted
making this sheet of paper the better instead of the worse
by covering it with my ink. but be what I write good or
bad it begs your favourable acceptance, & doubts not being

[f.13v]

receive with y^r usual sweetness & partiality which always
leads you to view the fruits & imperfections of your friends
through the repelling end of the perspective, & their merits
through the magnifying one, & may you always make use of
the Glass in this manner when you read my Letters, for I know
nothing to write worthy your perusal. The news papers are
full enough of the Dismals, without my adding to them, & I would
rather choose to drive all such {^^ideas} far from you than bring
them to y^r Remembrance God is merciful in all his works, &
there is no harm can happen to any one but what is for the
Good of the whole {^^whole}, for the whole creation are his Family, he is
the Parent of all, & has, like other good Parents an equal re-
-gard for the happiness of all his Children, but the Good of the
whole must sometimes be promoted by the sufferings of parti-
culars, in another world things will be order’d otherwise
there, the inhabitants will be all Righteousness, & consequently all
Happy, but here, Patience & Resignation are the most necessa-
-ry Dutys. The joys the serene joy of a Country Life are my
Delight, & was I capable of expressing my sense of them, be-
-lieve they might be more entertaining {^^{at this time}} than any other subject.
The very Frost & Snow, have their distinguish’d pleasures &
Beauties to me. What can be more Beautiful than a Hore
Hoar-frost! That shows every Fibre & string in a Spider’s Web
what makes the Ice so hard? The snow so soft, & white, & Light
as Air? The winds so strong & yet Invisible to mortal Eye. The
Snow-Drop, bowing down its Drooping Head as if it mourn’d

[f.14]

being produced in such an inclement season. The crocus, Iris, Prim-
-rose, & violet, begin to display their Lovely sweets & contact Co-
-lours & are all delightful to my fancy, & charm my Dazzled
sight, but nothing pleases me so much as the moon, & all the
Gems of Heaven Glitt’ring round her! This is to me a far more
delightful sight, than M^rs spencer encircled with jewels when
she presented to his majesty, tho’ I should have liked to
have seen her Well enough & would have been contended for one
night to have assumed the Dress of a Yeoman of the Guard to
have seen her pass by me in all her Goodly Attire. It is my
Opinion there is no Gentleman & Lady throughout the Kingdom
that are more deserving of the Good things of this World & the
next than that Happy pair. How truly noble is it in him to
pay his Fathers Debts! It was impossible for more care to be
taken than he took to prevent all Riot & excess at the Publick
Celebration of his Birth Day at Althrop, he cloathed the poor
in many Parishes round him. & it was with vast unwillingness
that he was compelled in any measure to contribute to their
getting Drunk, & all possible care was taken of those unhappy
wretches that would abuse his favours by drinking too much &
what above all confirms him in my good opinion is his having
Married a young Lady of superior Merit sense & distinguished
merit without having any regard to money of which he knew
when he had enough, & that very few people do, he is, & so I
dare say will prove if he Lives a Godlike man, & his Lady
equal in Goodness to himself. I hear she actually designs
saving five hundred pounds a year out of her Pin-money to

[f.14v]

provide Fortunes for young maidens when they marry. For this one
act, for this well judged charity, sho’d merit Heaven if for nothing
else. For promoting Matrimony is promoting every thing that
is Good, because it is promoting the Publick Good. It is pro-
-moting Honesty, Chastity, Sobriety, Industry, & Happiness
to all mankind & it is obeying the will, & the command of God.
Whose First injunction, over & above what he had wisely
ingrafted in out nature, I say his first command in word
as well as in nature, was, increase & multiply, but this
command we cannot obey without being married, any
more than a man can be charitable with Goods unjustly
gotten, for tho’ we are commanded to give to the poor, yet
we must not steal in order to give, for that would be
Breaking one command in order to keep another, it would be
wranging one in order to give to another, so neither may
a man or woman commit fornication in order to increase
& multiply, but to obey this command they must be Mar-
-ried. Marriage is Honorable in all, it was instituted
by God himself who first made only one man & one
Woman & has ever since so order’d the World by his all
over, rull ruling Providence that there are pretty near an
Equal number of both sexes Born Every year, which not only
proves that like Adam & Eve every one should marry but
likewise that no man should have more than one wife, nor
no woman more than one Husband. for this is the Law of nature

To M^rs Brompton Feb. 28. 1756
I have just now renewed my Pleasure in reading over afresh
Dear M^rs Bromptons Obliging Letter received by me on Decem^r/ 19^th
1755. & do not find any thing in it that requires my answer
but a great deal that demands my acknowledgements & thanks
for it is filled with Good nature & Good sense from the beginning
to the end, & very expressive of y^r having entertained a better
opinion & a greater regard for y^r unworthy Cousin than she
can ever deserve from y^r hands, but I don’t design to be so sin-
-gular as to wish to be treated according to my Desert, & therefore
am very well pleased you should continue in y^r Error, & will
not take any pains to persuade you that I am Good for nothing.
I Dreamed last night that (Arachne like) I was metamorpho
-sed into a spider as big as the full moon, & sat upon a Throne
in the centre of a web of my own spinning as Large as Lincolns-
-Inn-Fields. As soon as I awaked, I wondered what this ex
-traordinary Dream should pretend, & not having any magician.
Astrologer, Soothsayer, or Chaldean to resort to, explained it my
self, to signify, that I must this day spin out of my own
Braine a Long Letter to Dear M^rs Brompton, w^ch wⁿ wrote &
Read will be no more work than a monstrous spider’s Web
now had I Dreamed of a silk-worm should have thought
it a far more fortunate prognostic, & not have doubted
making this sheet of paper the better instead of the worse
by covering it with my ink. but be what I write good or
bad it begs your favourable acceptance, & doubts not being

[f.13v]

receive with y^r usual sweetness & partiality which always
leads you to view the fruits & imperfections of your friends
through the repelling end of the perspective, & their merits
through the magnifying one, & may you always make use of
the Glass in this manner when you read my Letters, for I know
nothing to write worthy your perusal. The news papers are
full enough of the Dismals, without my adding to them, & I would
rather choose to drive all such {^^ideas} far from you than bring
them to y^r Remembrance God is merciful in all his works, &
there is no harm can happen to any one but what is for the
Good of the whole {^^whole}, for the whole creation are his Family, he is
the Parent of all, & has, like other good Parents an equal re-
-gard for the happiness of all his Children, but the Good of the
whole must sometimes be promoted by the sufferings of parti-
culars, in another world things will be ordered otherwise
there, the inhabitants will be all Righteousness, & consequently all
Happy, but here, Patience & Resignation are the most necessa-
-ry Duties. The joys the serene joy of a Country Life are my
Delight, & was I capable of expressing my sense of them, be-
-lieve they might be more entertaining {^^{at this time}} than any other subject.
The very Frost & Snow, have their distinguished pleasures &
Beauties to me. What can be more Beautiful than a Hore
Hoar-frost! That shows every Fibre & string in a Spider’s Web
what makes the Ice so hard? The snow so soft, & white, & Light
as Air? The winds so strong & yet Invisible to mortal Eye. The
Snow-Drop, bowing down its Drooping Head as if it mourned

[f.14]

being produced in such an inclement season. The crocus, Iris, Prim-
-rose, & violet, begin to display their Lovely sweets & contact Co-
-lours & are all delightful to my fancy, & charm my Dazzled
sight, but nothing pleases me so much as the moon, & all the
Gems of Heaven Glittering round her! This is to me a far more
delightful sight, than M^rs spencer encircled with jewels when
she presented to his majesty, tho’ I should have liked to
have seen her Well enough & would have been contended for one
night to have assumed the Dress of a Yeoman of the Guard to
have seen her pass by me in all her Goodly Attire. It is my
Opinion there is no Gentleman & Lady throughout the Kingdom
that are more deserving of the Good things of this World & the
next than that Happy pair. How truly noble is it in him to
pay his Fathers Debts! It was impossible for more care to be
taken than he took to prevent all Riot & excess at the Public
Celebration of his Birth Day at Althrop, he clothed the poor
in many Parishes round him. & it was with vast unwillingness
that he was compelled in any measure to contribute to their
getting Drunk, & all possible care was taken of those unhappy
wretches that would abuse his favours by drinking too much &
what above all confirms him in my good opinion is his having
Married a young Lady of superior Merit sense & distinguished
merit without having any regard to money of which he knew
when he had enough, & that very few people do, he is, & so I
dare say will prove if he Lives a Godlike man, & his Lady
equal in Goodness to himself. I hear she actually designs
saving five hundred pounds a year out of her Pin-money to

[f.14v]

provide Fortunes for young maidens when they marry. For this one
act, for this well judged charity, should merit Heaven if for nothing
else. For promoting Matrimony is promoting every thing that
is Good, because it is promoting the Public Good. It is pro-
-moting Honesty, Chastity, Sobriety, Industry, & Happiness
to all mankind & it is obeying the will, & the command of God.
Whose First injunction, over & above what he had wisely
ingrafted in out nature, I say his first command in word
as well as in nature, was, increase & multiply, but this
command we cannot obey without being married, any
more than a man can be charitable with Goods unjustly
gotten, for though we are commanded to give to the poor, yet
we must not steal in order to give, for that would be
Breaking one command in order to keep another, it would be
wranging one in order to give to another, so neither may
a man or woman commit fornication in order to increase
& multiply, but to obey this command they must be Mar-
-ried. Marriage is Honourable in all, it was instituted
by God himself who first made only one man & one
Woman & has ever since so ordered the World by his all
over, rull ruling Providence that there are pretty near an
Equal number of both sexes Born Every year, which not only
proves that like Adam & Eve every one should marry but
likewise that no man should have more than one wife, nor
no woman more than one Husband. for this is the Law of nature